Foxconn: ?We?re here to stay?

Having long kept a low profile in the UK, mammoth Taiwanese manufacturing group Foxconn is looking to expand its British presence with a two-pronged approach, taking in both its branded products and a new white-label scheme it is preparing to unleash.

Having reorganised its operations – a hiatus that led to rumours that the company was preparing to pull out of the UK market – Foxconn has been able to organise a “flexible and focused” new approach to the market, and is keen to support lower-level system integrators and resellers.

To do so, it is offering a range of products that aim to take the hassle out of building PCs from the ground up, while maintaining a high level of quality to reduce after-sales service costs.

“What we’re now looking to do is provide the barebone products for channel customers,” Foxconn’s UK managing director Stephen Ling told PCR. “Foxconn won’t brand any finished product, so what we’re trying to do is provide a range of barebone products that people can then turn in to their own solutions and brand it themselves.

“Resellers and independent system builders need the solutions to compete with the tier ones. At the end of the day everyone wants to make sure there’s a healthy channel there.”

The first of these white box products to hit the UK is the NT330 net-top box, which will initially be branded and sold by Maplin. The vendor is also looking to boost the presence of its branded motherboards and cases in the UK as it continues to raise the profile of its own brand.

“We’re here to stay,” said Ling. “Foxconn never really went away, we’ve just been a little bit quiet.”

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